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Thread: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

  1. #1
    Cookie Guest

    Default Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    I am looking for a desk chair for my home office. Is there a good H&M chair you would recommend for petite person? I am tiny and only 5'2'' tall. It's always challenging to find a chair that suits my body well.

    The chair doesn't have to have arms. It does need to be comfortable and look traditional (or somewhere in bewteen traditional and transitional).

    Here are some details of my desk. It is a partners' desk, and is 32'' tall. There is 25.5'' clearance from the floor to the bottom of the front drawer. The front drawer can be flattened to function as a keyboard tray. I plan to put my keyboard on this tray, and slide the front part of my chair under the tray, so I could rest my arms and wrists on the tray when I type.

    My husband already picked out his chair. It's Kensington Gooseneck Swivel-Tilt Chair. He prefers the tufted version, but we will need to see the cost difference..

    Thank you for reading!
    Last edited by Cookie; 03-10-2013 at 12:35 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Alexandria VA
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    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Your desk is WAY too tall for you at 32". You should be working on a 27" to 28" height desk. Your feet will never touch the floor at 32" H and that's not comfortable for you to work at regardless of the chair. Have you already bought this desk or can you shop for a smaller one? This may be your best chair option from H&M:

    http://www.hancockandmoore.com/produ...productid=1091
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  3. #3
    Cookie Guest

    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Quote Originally Posted by drcollie View Post
    Your desk is WAY too tall for you at 32". You should be working on a 27" to 28" height desk. Your feet will never touch the floor at 32" H and that's not comfortable for you to work at regardless of the chair. Have you already bought this desk or can you shop for a smaller one? This may be your best chair option from H&M:

    http://www.hancockandmoore.com/produ...productid=1091
    Oh no.. we bought the desk last year, and didn't get around to get chairs to go with it. Now I wish I had asked here before ordering the desk!

    I checked the front drawer/ keyboard tray. It's 30'' wide, 19'' deep (when flattened), and 26'' off floor. Maybe I could use this tray, rather than the desk top, as my work space? I work on a computer most of the time, so it might be okay? On the other hand, the 27'' computer screen will probably sit too high for me, hmm..

    An alternative solution might be, use a little foot stool, under the desk. On second thought, this probably won't work because of the caster.

    Thank you for the chair recommendation, Duane. It looks pretty. I am going to ask you for a quote later. I am doing several projects at the same time (home office, breakfast room, etc). It's overwhelming, and is taking me a long time to pick out suitable items.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    I'm just shy of 6' tall and I work at a 30" desk, I can't imagine you at 5'2" trying to get comfortable on a 32" height piece. You will look like that Lily Tomlin in an old Laugh-In skit (can't remember that character name, I'm dating myself). Can you trim the desk down but cutting the legs or are they too ornate? You really have to get the desk height down and working on the keyboard tray isn't practical as you noted. No chair is going to make up for that, sorry. Perhaps you can use the desk in another room or else sell it and start over? I'd cut my losses on that and get the right size for you THEN go chair shopping.
    Last edited by drcollie; 03-10-2013 at 01:42 PM.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Edith Anne

  6. #6
    Cookie Guest

    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    The desk is too ornate for modifications, and it doesn't "legs". Here is what it looks like from the side:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    I do have a really old (>60 years), single-person desk that's 28.5'' tall. We replaced it (and another desk) with the new, large partners' desk, so we don't have to have two separate desks in the home office.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    This old desk is currently sitting in the basement bedroom. It probably needs to be sanded down and re-finished. Its legs can come off during move, so I imagine they can be replaced with shorter legs.

    I will think about re-using the old desk in another room, vs. selling the new partners' desk (and getting a lower partners' desk). The new desk cost quite a bit (a bit more than two H&M Sundance chairs), and we barely used it. I don't think the local retailer would take it back, but maybe worth a try..

  7. #7
    crunchysue Guest

    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Hi Cookie,

    I feel your pain re being too short for a desk - I'm 5-foot-nuthin and rarely have I ever had a desk & chair low enough for comfortable computer work with my feet on the floor. With a fixed desk height, the best solution I've found is a pneumatic chair that fits & sits you well, coupled with a foot rest. I've used this kind of thing with good results (http://www.staples.com/Safco-Ergo-Co...product_889834) and I've even used a plain old cardboard box, which might not be quite the look you're going for. A Google search just now found this, which looks like a great idea if it would fit the chair: http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/of...FYxDMgod7T8AnQ.

    Good luck!
    Sue

  8. #8
    Cookie Guest

    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Sue, thanks for the suggestions!

    I've tried using the adjustable footrest thing at my work place. It doesn't work well for me, as it cannot follow my foot movement. Besides, my feet keep pushing it further under the desk, until it becomes unreachable, which is when I need to crawl under the desk to pull it out.

    I find that wearing 2'' platform shoes works better than using the footrest thing.. The desk at my work place is not super high, so I could get away with it.

    The FootSicle Footrest thing in your second link seems promising! I did ask a while back, about adding a foot ring to swivel chair. Duane (and my husband) think it might unbalance the chair..I will do a bit research on this.

    H&M executive chair with feet ring (I used the wrong term in this thread..I meant add the ring above the caster, not the swivel base.)
    Last edited by Cookie; 03-11-2013 at 01:12 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    You've got to get the right desk to start off with, otherwise you'll never be comfortable. And if you DO get the right one, its a lifetime purchase and never needs replacement. That's so important for a comfortable working space. I spend a large part of each day at my desks at home and at work, and I actually have the exact same desk and chair at both places because I've nailed down the comfort/space thing. I don't that Partner's deck is ever going to work for you, why put up with years of misery trying to work at a 32" height?

    Here's one I custom made for a University Professor to her specs and she was 5' 4". She has had it now 5 years and still tells me how perfect it is for her. 29.75" high

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  10. #10
    Cookie Guest

    Default Re: Please recommend a H&M office chair for petite person

    Duane, that's a gorgeous desk! Would you be able to custom build a desk around a specific chair? I just emailed you for a quote on a few items including the chair. I was thinking of using the chair with my old desk (whose legs can be changed out and thus shortened from 28.5''H to 27'') for a while, and when my budget allows, I could change to a new (custom) desk that has the perfect height and space. Or is that a bad idea?

    I understand it'd be the best if I could have the right desk first. The problem is, my husband and I don't have any experience selling new/used furniture. Where should we start if we were to sell the partners' desk now? I feel like Craiglist is for selling things at huge discount, and we don't want to sell our desk for only a little money. I'd like to hear your suggestions. (The desk was made by Maitland-Smith. We waited over half a year for it to arrive. It is still in perfect condition.)
    Last edited by Cookie; 03-11-2013 at 05:51 PM.

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